HUNDREDS of private letters written by the notorious Nazi commander Heinrich Himmler have surfaced in the home of an Israeli Jew.

The massive collection includes memoirs detailing the rise and fall of the Third Reich and love letters to his wife, Marga.

A rabid anti-semite, the SS chief is recognised as one of the key architects of the Holocaust, having conceived and administered the Nazi death camps such as Treblinka.

German newspaper Die Welt obtained and published the previously unseen letters and pictures.